Set Up Your Character in Both Blender & Unreal

Before we move forward with getting your character ready for Pixelhair, We need to ensure that your character exists in both Blender and Unreal Engine.

For Custom Characters:

• Import your character into both Blender and Unreal Engine.
• Textures in Blender aren’t important at this stage, but textures and materials in Unreal matter especially if that’s where your final render will be.
• There are multiple ways to transfer characters from Blender to Unreal (including various plugins). Choose what works best for you. All we need is for your character to be correctly imported in Unreal in order to correctly install the PixelHair asset.
• If your character is exported as an FBX, you can drag and drop it into Unreal.
• Once your character is imported into both, skip to the next section of the tutorial.

For MetaHuman Users:

• If you’re using a MetaHuman, I assume you already have a custom MetaHuman or a default one in mind.
• If you haven’t imported it yet, here’s how:

Importing a MetaHuman into Unreal Engine

1. Open Unreal Engine and start a new project.
2. At the top left corner, find the icon of a cube with a plus sign. (See image below.)
3. Click it, then select Quixel Bridge.

What is Quixel Bridge?
Quixel Bridge is an Epic Games asset libary that gives you full access to the Megascans collections as well as other assets. It also serves as a connector between the MetaHuman Editor and Unreal Engine, making it easy to import your MetaHuman and other assets into your project.

4. Once you’ve opened Quixel Bridge, a new window will appear.
5. Sign in to Quixel Bridge. You’ll need to log in to access your custom MetaHumans. You can sign in using your Unreal Engine account or another preferred method.
6. Right after you get logged in, Click on “Metahuman Presets” in the menu.
7. Then, select “My MetaHumans” to view your custom builds. It doesn’t matter if you choose a custom or default MetaHuman the process of importing the metahuman remains the same.
8. Hover over your chosen MetaHuman, and you’ll see a green arrow icon appear. Click it to start the download.

Download Time & Progress

The download time depends on your network speed, so feel free to grab a cup of tea ☕ while you wait! A percentage counter will pop up, showing the progress of your download.

9. Once your MetaHuman download is complete. Hover over your MetaHuman again.
10. You’ll now see a blue arrow which points right (replacing the percentage counter).
11. Click this arrow to export the MetaHuman to Unreal Engine. This process can take anywhere from a few seconds to a couple of minutes.
12. Once the export is complete, close Quixel Bridge and return to Unreal Engine. Now have a character to attach the Pixelhair asset to

Locating Your MetaHuman in Unreal

1. Open the Content Browser in Unreal.
2. Look for a new folder named “MetaHuman”. This contains your exported character.
3. Open the MetaHuman folder, then find and open the folder named after your MetaHuman.
4. Inside, you’ll find all the necessary files, confirming that your MetaHuman has been successfully imported into Unreal.

Exporting the MetaHuman Head to Blender

Now that your MetaHuman is in Unreal, we also need a copy of the character in Blender. This is where we would attach the Pixelhair asset beffore bringing it back to Unreal.

Understanding MetaHuman Structure

MetaHumans are divided into two parts:

1. The Head
2. The Body

For PixelHair, we only need to export the head region.
Instead of manually searching for the specific file to export, we’ll use the MetaHuman Blueprint, which makes the process much easier.

How to Export the MetaHuman Head

1. Double-click on your MetaHuman Blueprint in Unreal Engine. This can be found in the metahuman folder with a “Blueprint Class” label on it. A new window will open.
2. Click on “Viewport” to see your MetaHuman.
3. Click on the head of your MetaHuman in the viewport.
4. On the right side, under the Mesh section, look for “Skeletal Mesh Asset”.
5. Click the magnifying glass icon to instantly locate the head region file in the Content Browser.

Exporting the MetaHuman Head as an FBX

After clicking the magnifying glass icon, minimize the Blueprint window and return to the Content Browser. You’ll notice that Unreal has automatically navigated to the storage location of your MetaHuman’s head and highlighted it for you.

Steps to Export the Head Mesh:

1. Right-click on the highlighted head mesh.
2. Select “Asset Actions”, then click “Export”.
3. Choose a save location for the FBX file and confirm.

FBX Export Settings for MetaHuman

After selecting a save location, an FBX settings popup will appear.

MetaHumans use LODs (Levels of Detail) which just means different versions of the same mesh with different amounts of detail. For PixelHair, we only need the highest level of detail.

Use the settings in the image below. We don’t need the LODs to install the PixelHair asset.

Importing the MetaHuman Head into Blender

Now that you’ve exported the top part of your MetaHuman, it’s time to bring it into Blender.

Steps to Import the FBX into Blender:

1. Open Blender.
2. Go to File > Import > FBX (.fbx).
3. Select the FBX file you just exported from Unreal Engine.
4. Click Import FBX. There is no need to adjust any settings.

Once imported successfully, your MetaHuman head should now appear in the Blender viewport.

At this stage, your screen should display something like this:

Separating the MetaHuman Head from the Armature in Blender

When you import the MetaHuman into Blender, you’ll notice that the bones in the armature are scattered. However, we don’t need to worry about that since our focus is solely on the head mesh. That is what we need in order to correctly install the Pixelhair asset.

We can’t simply delete the armature, because the mesh is parented to it. If you delete the armature directly, the mesh will be removed as well which we don’t want considering we need the mesh for the Pixehair asset. Instead, we need to separate the mesh from the armature properly.

How to Unparent the Mesh from the Armature:

1. Select the head mesh in Blender.
2. Press ALT + P to bring up the ‘Clear Parent’ menu.
3. Choose “Clear and Keep Transform” to unparent the mesh while keeping its position intact.

Verifying the Unparenting Process:

To make sure it worked:

• Click on the armature and try moving it.
• If the mesh moves along with it, the unparenting didn’t work and you would have to try again.
• If the armature moves independently while the mesh stays in place, the process was successful.

Now, select the armature and press X to delete it.

At this point, you should have just the MetaHuman head in Blender and Unreal Engine. Now we can move forward to installing the Pixelhair asset on the mesh.